Wet wipes are currently sold for a variety of applications, including for use in personal cleansing in circumstances where soap, water, cloths, towels and a sink or washtub facility are unavailable or inconvenient.
Wet wipes as packaged and sold typically comprise a stack of individually cut sheets, or a continuous folded stack or roll of material having perforations dividing the material into lengths that may be torn away at the perforations as individual sheets. The material of which the sheets are formed may be a nonwoven material formed of polymeric or natural fibers, or a combination thereof. The material is typically highly porous and capable of absorbing and holding a substantial fraction of its weight, or more, of an aqueous lotion. The stack or roll may be moistened or even saturated with the aqueous lotion. The aqueous lotion may be a solution or an emulsion, or a combination thereof, and may contain one or more cleansing agents, skin care agents, preservatives (antibacterial agents) and perfumes. As such, the wipes may constitute a convenient and pleasant product useful for a variety of personal cleansing applications, such as hand wipes, child wipes, baby wipes, etc.
In order prevent the water portion of the lotion from evaporating from the wipes stack or roll after manufacture and packaging, it is necessary to package the moistened or saturated stack in a container that substantially retains the moisture content over the expected time between manufacture and use of the product. This is currently done in a variety of ways.
One way in which wet wipes are packaged is within a flow-wrap film package. A polymer film having a suitably low water vapor transmission rate is selected and used to form stock package material. Wet wipes stacks are formed and conveyed to a flow wrapping machine, which wraps the stock package material about each stack and forms seams in the material to join it to itself and seal it about the stack, thereby forming a moisture-retaining package of wet wipes that is sufficient to retain the moisture content from the time of manufacture to the time of purchase.
More is needed, however. Since a consumer will not ordinarily use the entire stack of wet wipes at one time, it may be desirable to provide some form of recloseable opening in the package, which allows the consumer to open the package easily and relatively non-destructively, withdraw wet wipes individually, and reclose the package. To retain the moisture in the remaining supply of wipes, it is desirable that the reclosure mechanism provide a sufficient barrier to moisture loss when properly closed.
Currently some flow-wrap wipes packages are sold with rigid plastic recloseable fitments. The fitment includes a ring portion that is adhered substantially about its perimeter to a face of the package, and a recloseable lid portion hingedly connected to the ring portion. The lid and ring portions may have cooperating features designed to retard moisture transmission between their respective contacting edges or surfaces, when in a closed configuration.
On the package face within the ring portion of the fitment, the package film may have therein a perforated outline of a tearaway portion. The outline is a series of perforations through the film that outline a shape, usually a closed shape. Because the perforations through the film may allow moisture to escape and the fitment may not be sufficiently effective to retard moisture loss over the time between manufacturing and application of a fitment lid covering the perforations, or manufacturing and purchase, an adhesive-backed sticker of sufficient size to cover all of the perforations may be applied over the film within the ring portion. When the consumer wishes to open the package, he or she may open the fitment lid and peel away the sticker. If the perforations, the shape, the sticker material and the adhesive are suitably selected and configured, the adhesive on the sticker will cause the underlying film within the perforated outline to remain adhered to the sticker, tear along the perforations, and pull away with the sticker, leaving an opening into the package in the shape of the perforated outline. The wipes may then be accessed and withdrawn through the opening. Following that, the consumer may reclose the lid, and the package may thereby retain moisture sufficiently during the time it takes for all of the wipes to be consumed.
It will be appreciated from the foregoing that the requirement for use of an adhesive sticker adds processing steps and cost to the wet wipes package. Therefore, an alternative way to provide a wipes package that effectively retains moisture between the time of manufacture and the time of opening by the consumer, while providing an easy opening feature and recloseable feature that sufficiently retains moisture during the time between package opening it takes for all of the wipes to be consumed, would be advantageous.